The Tony winner will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Sept. 4. Tony winner Lea Salonga admits she never really thought about getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It’s not like the kind of Hollywood career that, say, somebody like Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn or any of those icons of the screen or television have had.
This is something that I did not foresee.” But on Friday, Salonga will become the 2,855th recipient of a Hollywood Walk of Fame star and makes history as the first Filipina to receive the honor. While she is known as a star of the stage, Salonga has had major roles on screen, too. She was the singing voice for Princess Jasmine in “Aladdin” as well as Fa Mulan in “Mulan” and “Mulan 2.” Later this month, Salonga, who made her singing debut when she was just seven years old in her native Manila, appears in “Forgotten Island,” DreamWorks Animation’s Philippines-set fantasy adventure about childhood friends who get trapped in the mystical world of Nakali.
We get to share our mythological creatures with the bigger world. I don’t think it’s something that I ever thought I would have seen.” Salonga was 17 years old when she landed “Miss Saigon” in the original West End production of the show before transferring to Broadway. She auditioned with a performance of “On My Own” from “Les Misérables” followed by “The Greatest Love of All.” After several call backs, including a trip to London, “I was told, ‘You’re in the show, but we don’t know what role we’re going to give you,’” Salonga recalled.
But I was like, ‘Whatever.’ I was pre-med in college. So if you decide you’re going to put me in the ensemble, I’ll just be like, ‘Thank you, but no thank you.’” Salonga’s work as Kim earned her a Laurence Olivier Award and in 1991, she became the first Asian actress to win a Tony Award and the second-youngest actress to win for best performance by a leading actress in a musical. She was still in “Miss Saigon” when she was cast in “Aladdin” in the early 90s.
She frequently appears on the Manila stage. She has also become a fierce LGBTQ+ ally and activist. Her actor and singer son Nic Chien came out as trans in 2025.
Thank you for what you and your mom are doing because I think this is also who I am, and it’s giving me strength and inspiration.’ “My son was reading one of those letters aloud in our kitchen in Manila,” she continues. It makes me intensely afraid, and not just for my own child, but for a lot of other young people who just want to live, who just want to exist and make a living for themselves and fall in love.” But she adds, “They’re basically trying to say, ‘Look over there,’ because chances are if somebody’s telling you to look somewhere else, you start looking into their backyards. Something is happening, and they’re trying to distract.
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